circumnutate
Americanverb (used without object)
Other Word Forms
- circumnutation noun
- circumnutatory adjective
Etymology
Origin of circumnutate
1875–80; circum- + nutate < Latin nūtātus, past participle of nūtāre to nod in assent, sway, totter
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Nevertheless, they are not in the least rudimentary in function, for they are sensitive, extremely heliotropic, circumnutate at nearly the same rate as the fully developed leaflets, and assume when asleep exactly the same position.
From The Power of Movement in Plants by Darwin, Charles
But the tracing shows that the basal part of the radicle continued to circumnutate irregularly during the whole time.
From The Power of Movement in Plants by Darwin, Charles
These paraheliotropic movements certainly consisted in one case of modified circumnutation; and so it probably is in all cases, for the leaves of all the species described circumnutate in a conspicuous manner.
From The Power of Movement in Plants by Darwin, Charles
We may therefore conclude that the leaves of Acanthus circumnutate periodically, falling in the morning and rising in the afternoon and night.
From The Power of Movement in Plants by Darwin, Charles
That an arched hypocotyl or epicotyl, with the two legs fixed in the ground, should be able to circumnutate, seemed to us, until we had read Prof. Wiesner's observations, an inexplicable fact.
From The Power of Movement in Plants by Darwin, Charles
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
